HHS Mandate

HHS contraceptive mandate threatens more than religious freedom

Sheila Liaugminas | 10 April 2013

It’s an assault on sensibilities. Worse, it’s perpetuating the real ‘war on women’ along with the myths about a phony one. Because the drugs being claimed under the umbrella of ‘women’s preventive health services’ are actually dangerous for women’s health. Who’s talking about that?

Obama’s drone attack power meets resistance

Sheila Liaugminas | 07 March 2013

This president and his administration are not used to pushback, and haven’t had to answer to much of it anyway, thanks to a largely complicit media and a discombobulated Congress mostly unable to directly engage him. And then came Rand Paul.

HHS ‘compromise’: “80 pages of nothing new”

Sheila Liaugminas | 11 February 2013

The basic mandate that employers with religious objections to the HHS contraceptive coverage still have to comply or pay punitive fines still stands. The latest fig leaf changes little, but it took a few days to wade through the dense and convoluted legalese the government issued to essentially say ‘we’re not willing to budge, more than an inch.’

Obama declares Religious Freedom Day

Sheila Liaugminas | 17 January 2013

In another twist on news that doesn’t square with other news, and words by the president that don’t match actions by the president…

Obamacare HHS mandate gets judicial correction

Sheila Liaugminas | 20 December 2012

It was always wrong. But because it was issued by executive fiat, its violation of law had to go through the process of being tried, and there are many lawsuits standing against it.

Justices order Obamacare back to court

Sheila Liaugminas | 27 November 2012

Had President Obama lost the election, it would have been eliminated and replaced by new healthcare reform. But his win doesn’t assure that his signature legislation will survive intact.

Post-election reckoning

Sheila Liaugminas | 20 November 2012

Now that there’s been another week for the election results to sink in, more writers are taking stock of what happened, and there’s an interesting juxtaposition of views on social issues going on. Just as there was during the heat of the campaigns. Was it, is it, better to emphasize them, or de-emphasize them?

Obama’s internet ‘kill swtich’

Sheila Liaugminas | 22 September 2012

A long time ago I saved news links to a story that got very little buzz at the time but caught my attention…the possibility that the president might issue an executive order to control the internet, under the pretext of security concerns. The story has recycled now, I’m not good at cleaning out saved files, and so dots are easier to connect.

Who speaks for women?

Sheila Liaugminas | 21 August 2012

Now that’s become a very interesting question.

What August 1st meant

Sheila Liaugminas | 07 August 2012

The HHS mandate went into effect. Religious institutions have a year ‘to figure out how they’re going to violate their consciences’, as NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan put it. Other employers have to do it now. And on the same day, Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day was held across America. How are they connected?

Religious freedom and the Obamacare “Tax”

Sheila Liaugminas | 16 July 2012

What impact will Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision to uphold the individual mandate as a tax have on the battle for the right to religious liberty and conscientious objection?

About that Supreme Court Obamacare ruling

Sheila Liaugminas | 29 June 2012

Nearly all the experts predicted it would wind up a 5-4 decision and that Anthony Kennedy would be the swing vote. They got it half right.